It wouldn’t be a Call of Duty launch without conversations about large file sizes, but Activision is looking to address those issues with a series of updates over the next few months. One of the biggest involves decoupling the free-to-playWarzonefrom the main game, which will help to makeBlack Ops 6smaller thanModern Warfare 3, according to the publisher.
While Activision hasn’t revealed game file size just yet, these new changes will be implemented starting on August 21 with Season 5 Reloaded. In ablog postpublished Thursday, Activision developers laid out plans to streamline textures and to encourage users to download early, but makingWarzonea separate download by default will be the most impactful on file sizes.Warzoneis a battle royale that’s a separate, free-to-play game, so there’s no reason to keep it tied with the latest Call of Duty main release. It’ll be available to install at any time, and players can opt to download it withBlack Ops 6.
Developers will also be rolling out new streamlined texture streaming that Activision says will cycle out older assets and content players might not use into a cache that’s not stored directly on their device. This does mean graphics might be lower quality, but a new setting called On-Demand High Quality Streaming will allow player to bypass it.
There are other planned updates being rolled out before launch, including one in mid-October that will feature a new UI. To make this all a lot easier, Activision is encouraging players to download these updates early. This process will be slightly different for PlayStation 5 players, who will get this update through four downloads.
This is great news for players who wanted to hop into one of thetwo beta periods. There’s one for early access from August 30-September 4, and another public open beta from September 6-9. The game is set to launch on October 25 across PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC, and will be available day one onXbox Game Pass.
It’ll also hopefully put fears to rest thatBlack Ops 6would be massive. People noticed in June that the Xbox store page listed the game as requiring a whopping 309.85GB download, whichActivision had to clarifytook into accountModern Warfare 2and3,along withWarzoneand all the content packs. For reference,Modern Warfare 3was 149GB at launch for the whole package.
